Earlier this month the hubby went out of town for a work trip. His trips used to send me into a stress spiral. I’d spend days before he left anxiously worrying about how I was going to feed, bathe, clothe and generally keep the children and myself alive until he returned. On this last trip, though, for the first time we managed. It wasn’t that we didn’t miss him as much or that we didn’t, per usual, try to FaceTime him eleventy times a day while he was in meetings. It’s that suddenly, I have little helpers at home. Now that Ge Ge is five years old, he’s become this wonderful, insightful, thoughtful human being. Plus, he’s not old enough to realize how totally lame I am. I hope he stays five forever.
The kids helped me every night by setting the table before dinner. Ge Ge loves to make what he calls “family date night.” He sets out our “fancy” (read: our regular white plates) plates and cloth napkins and turns on our battery-powered LED candles. For the grownups, he puts out stemless wine glasses and sensible sturdy drinking glasses for himself and his sister. He’ll bring me our TV remote and insist that I play Pandora radio on our TV for “happy dinner music.” Someday he’ll make a woman very happy (and break his mother’s heart, I’m sure).